Gary Anderson's memories of Alex Zanardi

Motorsport hero Alex Zanardi has died "suddenly" but "peacefully", just under six years after being seriously injured in a handcycling accident.

The Race's Gary Anderson worked with Zanardi right at the start of his Formula 1 career with Jordan in 1991. They crossed paths again when Gary was working with Reynard in Champ Car 10 years later - when Zanardi was back in the series he had conquered in such epic fashion across 1996-98 after his ill-fated 1999 F1 return with Williams, but would suffer the catastrophic accident in which he lost both his legs.

Here are Gary's memories of the explosive talent Zanardi was when trying to prove himself to the F1 world with Jordan right at the start.

I knew Alex pretty well from way back then. He was a lovely guy. When he drove for us in 1991, that was the start of his Formula 1 career. It was quite interesting because he didn't know how to go slow. That was one thing about Alex.

He was always on it constantly, all the time, every lap was just another banzai lap. And he was driving for his future as well because he didn't know where he was going after the little trip with us. 

We’d had Bertrand Gachot and Andrea de Cesaris at the beginning of the year, then Bertrand had his misdemeanor with a taxi driver, spending a month in prison. Along came Michael Schumacher, and set the world alight really with his efforts at Spa.

Due to contractual agreements or disagreements - whatever you like to call them - he was soon gone and we swapped drivers with Benetton and had Roberto Moreno. Roberto, again a very good friend of mine, did two races with us. And to be honest, the right thing for us to have done at that time would have been to have kept Roberto. But we were looking for money as a team.

And then Alex came along. He was just flat-out constantly. He probably did more damage in those three races than any other driver we had in the car. Luckily, it was the end of the season!

The best moment - but also most destructive - was in Australia. In Adelaide at that time there were some big kerbs. And Alex was just a kerb user. And every day was a new experiment or a new experience. The car would come back in different levels of destruction, I suppose you might call it. 

We went from using his race car on Friday to using the spare car and then having to swap to the spare chassis we had in the box. And then I think it was after Saturday qualifying, we had to take that one that we had committed as finished out of the box again, start injecting all the glue around the nose supports and the front suspension pick-ups and rebuild it as a car for race day. So he used up all our bits and pieces in those three races.

But on the way there, he was wringing its neck, trying as hard as he could. That race in Adelaide was wet and stopped early. And there were crashes all over the place. When the race was stopped, we were actually running fourth and fifth. On countback that became seventh and eighth. Just one more lap under a green flag would have put us fourth and fifth, which would have a great result for our team.

I remember when they were talking about restarting the race, I got both Alex and Andrea together and threatened them both with violence if they took each other off if there was another lap of racing - “whatever way you get going, you stay that way. You just don't bother trying to race each other. I don't care which way it is, but if you two take each other off, you’ll have me to deal with!” But the race never restarted again. Obviously we enjoyed working with him, but it wasn't to be. 

The next time I worked with him was in 2001 in America when Alex had gone back to Champ Car. I worked for Reynard for a year trying to sort of develop the IndyCar a little bit more. And Alex was there with Mo Nunn Racing. And actually, interestingly, by that time, I think he had matured and lost that real hunger, that real fight and he got himself to a point where he was trying to make things too good. He was working constantly on getting the car right all the time as opposed to the Alex I knew from 1991 when he would just wring the car’s neck.

I was there at the LausitzRing when he had his accident and I actually sort of had to go and do an analysis of the car and of the accident for the circuit and the police. It wasn't a pleasant sight and that memory will stay with me forever.

Alex, it was great to know you, you showed the world that setbacks shouldn’t interfere with your dreams. Anything is possible if you apply yourself to it.